


And Then We Rise

by Daedaleopsis



Category: The Big Bang Theory (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-30
Packaged: 2021-01-15 04:24:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21247433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daedaleopsis/pseuds/Daedaleopsis
Summary: This is the sequel to "All Fall Down", so it's best if you read that first.  Spoilers for that story ahead................Penny and Sheldon struggle to put their lives back together after they lose all of their friends in a horrific tragedy.





	1. Chapter 1

Sheldon sat on a hotel bed, alone and uncomfortable. The past few days were such a bewildering shock to his psyche that he couldn't make any sense of them. With a faint squeak, the door handle turned. The paneled door swung open slowly to reveal Penny, wrapped in a cotton knit blanket. Without a word, she sat down next to him, huddled against his side.  
"Your father won't like this," he warned.  
She didn't respond. A deep sigh escaped him, and he hoped that Bob wasn't going to skin him alive. It wasn't his fault that Penny needed constant reassurance, although he couldn't entirely blame her either. No, he felt Raj was to blame, or maybe it was Amy… or even Bernadette. He honestly couldn't make sense of it anymore.  
Just a few days ago, he had been dragged along on a weekend getaway with his friends - all of them except Raj. He'd been concerned that Amy would try to sneak into his bedroom, and he'd been right, but that was the least of his troubles. In a tragedy he couldn't quite comprehend but remembered all too vividly, his girlfriend and perpetual third wheel Raj had committed atrocities. Amy had drugged both him and Penny to fulfill her twisted desires. Raj had murdered Leonard and then Amy but had saved the worst of his wrath for Howard. Bernadette had been forced to watch as he tortured her husband and then killed herself out of guilt. Sheldon remembered Raj's manic smile while he slid a knife across Howard's skin.. If it hadn't been for Penny, Sheldon knew he would have been next. In a desperate attempt to save her friends, Penny had caved Raj's skull in with a fire extinguisher.  
He had one clear memory of calling for help outside the abandoned utility building. By that point, Penny had been in shock. He put his arm around her only because she had just saved his life and was shivering so hard her teeth clacked together. Maybe that was when this started, her need for physical contact with him. In the hospital, bruised and battered and with one arm in a sling, she still managed to escape her own room three times. Each time, she made b. way to Sheldon's bed and wedged herself between his side and the bed rails. Eventually, he convinced the hospital staff to move her to the bed next to his.  
Then Penny's father Bob had arrived, all too ready to swoop in and save the day. Except his daughter was the real hero, leaving Bob seething with frustrated energy. He'd made some attempt not to take out all his anger on Sheldon. But when swarms of reporters and photographers had surrounded the hospital, Bob had spirited them both away to a nearby hotel. He wasn't quite unfeeling enough to take away anything that brought his daughter peace of mind, but he clearly resented Sheldon and wished he were gone.  
The woman in question nudged him with her shoulder as she burrowed closer.  
"Your father is going to--" The door shrieked as it was wrenched open. "Take you back to your own bed," he finished with a sigh.  
Glaring at Sheldon, Bob slid his arms under his daughter and picked her up as if she was a little girl. Penny mumbled incoherent protests, but she was still exhausted and disoriented from the prescription painkillers her father kept coaxing her to take. Although Amy's scalpel had come close to a vital nerve center in Penny's shoulder, there would be no lasting damage. Not physically at least.  
The three of them laid low in the hotel for over a week while reporters camped outside 2311 Los Robles, eager for a glimpse of the survivors of what they dubbed the Halloween Massacre. Then one day, the next sensational story made the news - some celebrity having an affair - and they cleared out. Now he and Penny would have to figure out how to pick up the pieces of their lives.  


* * *

Penny had started shaking the moment she walked into the lobby of the apartment building and saw the mailboxes. She remembered running into her neighbors there many times: a younger, less stocky version of Leonard gazing at her adoringly as they talked. Her father was shocked that the elevator was still out of order. She shrugged, while Sheldon mechanically rattled off some explanation about building codes. When they got to apartment 4A, Penny balked.  
"I don't know if I can go in there," she whispered. Even Sheldon looked unsettled. He unlocked the door and bolted for the privacy of his room. Tears welled up in her eyes as she took in the familiar setting. Her father was waiting with open arms, and she sobbed against his chest.  
She hadn't yet gotten around to moving her things out of her old apartment. Amy and Bernadette had been hatching a plan to get Sheldon to move in there with his girlfriend. Knowing what she knew now, Penny wished she'd put a stop to it. Amy's creepy possessiveness was something she used to laugh off. Now she regretted that she never listened to her gut instincts that there was something a little off about Amy. On the other hand, who ever expected not one but two of their friends to turn into psychopaths?  
So she retreated to her old place, where they were fewer memories, while her dad arranged to have Leonard's things boxed up. She had to contact his parents… all her friends' parents. It was a never ending nightmare.  
Sheldon got into a shouting match with her dad over Leonard's belongings being packed away. It was only when he tried to confront Penny that Bob threatened to hurt him. She tried to intervene, but it was too late. The next day, her dad found a note saying Sheldon was going home indefinitely.  


* * *

As soon as the police released the bodies, she had to suffer through almost a full week of funerals. Mrs. Cooper came to California, dragging her son, who looked gaunt in his black suit and barely spoke to anyone. Penny couldn't believe she would prefer hearing a lecture from him on medieval sanitation rather than this silence. Even her new hairstyle, shoulder length and brunette to disguise her from any remaining reporters, failed to elicit any comment from him.  
Then she was approached by Raj's parents. She was at Amy's memorial service, held in the non-religious setting of the funeral home. As far as she knew, only the police and Sheldon knew what had really happened. She refused to contribute to Ms. Farrah's grief by revealing that Amy had been Raj's accomplice. What did it matter anyway? Amy was dead, Raj was dead, all her friends were dead, and the only thing she could do was to let their families comfort themselves with lies.  
The aging Indian couple stood out in stark contrast to the black the other funeral-goers were wearing. They wore white tunic and sari, heavily ornamented and embroidered. She guessed at once that they must be Raj's parents and automatically started to say, "I'm very sorry for your loss."  
Raj's father cut her off. "We must speak to you in private. It is very urgent."  
His wife nodded and touched Penny's arm. "Please, come with us."  
Confused but relieved to have an excuse to leave, she followed them into a nearby coatroom. Mrs. Koothrapali darted an anxious look at her husband.  
"We must speak to you about our son," he said. "Is it true that he was responsible for these terrible acts?"  
Penny swayed on her feet and put out a hand to the nearest object - the door frame - to steady herself. "Who told you that? Was it Sheldon?"  
"Dr. Cooper? No. I am a wealthy man and have resources that most do not," Mr. Koothrapali said proudly. "Obtaining a copy of the police report was a simple matter."  
"I… I don't understand."  
"You have had a terrible shock," Raj's mother soothed. She reached for Penny's hand, but Penny shrank back.  
"Have you told anyone else details of what happened or who was responsible?"  
Penny shook her head. "I didn't see the point."  
"Good, good. We would like to encourage you to continue thinking that way." He slid a thick white envelope from a pocket and handed it to her. "If both you and Dr. Cooper agree never to reveal our son's involvement, we will make sure you are well compensated for the suffering he caused you."  
Frowning, Penny looked inside the envelope to see some sort of legal document… and a banker's check with lots of zeroes. "What? Are you trying to buy my silence?"  
"Not at all," he answered as his wife promptly said, "Yes."  
"I don't believe this," she said, almost numb with shock. Thrusting the envelope back into Mr. Koothrapali's hands, she snarled, "If I decide not to talk, it's because I don't want to hurt the families of my friends. It's hard enough for them to try to make sense of what happened without hearing--" She broke off, and tears welled up in her eyes. "Just leave me alone."  
She moved to walk around Raj's parents, but his father moved to block her path. He held out the envelope. "It would be in everyone's best interests for you to cooperate." His voice and expression were flat. It certainly didn't seem like he was mourning his son.  
Although tears still streamed down her face, Penny balled her hands into fists. "If you try to contact me or Sheldon with anything more than an apology, I promise you I'll go straight to the major networks and tell the world exactly what your son did. Do we understand each other?"  
Mr. Koothrapali's face turned an ugly shade of red, but he finally nodded curtly, and he and his wife left.  
Penny took a few moments to compose herself and then went in search of Mrs. Cooper. No matter how different Mary Cooper was from her son, she had always been fiercely protective of him - now more than ever.


	2. Chapter 2

"Take all the time you need."  
Penny smiled her thanks at the helmeted fire fighter, decked out in full protective gear. Then she turned to the man standing next to her. "Are you ready?"  
"You're stalling," Sheldon commented dryly.  
Her cheeks flushed pink. "Sorry. I just never thought we'd be back here, you know?"  
He swallowed hard as he studied the river rock fireplace and vaulted ceiling. This was the last place he'd seen his friends alive: joking around, grumbling and just being normal. Then his jaw tightened. "The sooner this place is a pile of ash, the better. Light the candles."  
Penny nodded and held out a lighter toward a row of white pillar candles. In front of each candle was propped a photo of one of the friends they had lost. Leonard. Howard and Bernadette. Even Amy and Raj. He had argued with her over the inclusion of the ones responsible for destroying their lives, but Penny had her own way, as she did more often than not.  
"It's important to remember all our losses. Somewhere along the way, I either lost their friendship, or I lost my ability to judge people," she explained.  
As he watched, Penny's hand trembled, and the lighter drooped in her hand. Her body quivered with the sobs she was trying to hold back. Stepping forward, he laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. After a few moments, she wiped her eyes with the back of her free hand. "Maybe you were right. Maybe we should've gone to Switzerland."  
"No," he answered, "You were right. We both need closure."  
She looked over her shoulder at him. Her eyes glistened with moisture as she patted his hand. "Then we should both do this, together."  
He nodded and steadied her hand as she lit the candles one by one. She ran her fingers lightly over the photo of Leonard. "I still miss you," she whispered. Then together, they lit the bale of hay underneath the candles. Tongues of flame and wisps of smoke rose from the bundled hay. It wouldn't quickly burn through the wooden tray Penny had placed on top of the hay bale as a platform for the candles, but that didn't matter. By the end of the day, the cabin would be nothing but a heap of embers and broken stone.   
Sheldon wasn't surprised to learn that Raj had purchased the cabin in the weeks before he carried out his revenge plot. After his death, it had reverted to his parents, who were happy to sign it over to the local fire department to use as a training exercise. Burning down the cabin was just one more way for them to figuratively sweep their son's evil deeds under the rug.  
He hadn't talked to the Koothrapalis, but Penny told him how they tried to buy her off. It was immensely satisfying to know that she'd bested them. His mother never breathed a word of it to him - at least, not that he remembered. There were large gaps in his memory from the weeks following the vacation-turned-nightmare. He hated being reminded of those blanks because he knew they were caused by severe clinical depression. That's what he'd been diagnosed with - although he still wasn't insane.  
After a tense week and a half holed up in a hotel with Penny's father - who clearly didn't like him - Sheldon had gone back to his old apartment and hid in his room. A few days later was the first time he noticed that everything that belonged to Leonard was gone. After a shouting match with Penny, which hadn't ended well, he booked a flight home to Texas. His mother was anxious to see him anyway. He spent a month with his mother fussing over him, trying to assimilate the fact that his life would never be the same. When he thought he was ready - or at least when he couldn’t stand his mother’s hovering any more - he went back to California. His apartment seemed terribly empty, but he had been thinking of new ways to rearrange the living area. He closed the door to Leonard’s old room with no intention of opening it again.  
On his first day back to work at Caltech, he took the bus to work. He hated taking the bus, but at least it didn’t remind him of his losses. His office was familiar, although he accomplished little that morning. At noon, he walked to the cafeteria. As soon as he entered the room, his eyes were drawn to the table he used to share with Leonard, Howard, and Raj. A couple of younger people - grad students if he had to guess - were sitting there, talking and joking around. When he saw them, he just… froze. After a moment, he realized that he truly couldn’t move: not his arms or his legs or even a finger. He could only watch helplessly as his co-workers began to whisper and stare. Someone shook him and asked if he was all right. He couldn’t answer them. Then another person (he always suspected it was Barry Kripke but had no proof) gave him a nudge that was more like a shove. Muscles still rigidly locked in the same posture, he fell to the ground.  
After that, an ambulance took him to the nearest hospital. The doctor assigned to his case determined he had catatonia and much to Sheldon’s horror, he was routed to the psych ward of the hospital. An injection of muscle relaxant allowed him to move again in a few hours, but once admitted into the psych ward, he couldn’t simply leave. The hospital had up to seventy-two hours to make a psychiatric assessment, and even after they did, there was no guarantee he would be released.   
His skin crawled. When he was eight, his mother had dragged him to a psychiatrist, demanding to know whether her son was insane. She didn't bother to listen to anything else the doctor had to say. Once he had reassured her that her son wasn't insane, she snatched up her purse, grabbed her son's hand and marched him out of there. That had been his one and only exposure to the mental health profession, and it had terrified him. From an early age, it was clear he was different from everyone else around him. The idea that he might not be sane had lodged itself in his mind and was difficult to let go. It had been a sore spot for him ever since, prompting his rote protest that "his mother had him tested".  
On the morning of the third day, he was sitting listlessly in a common area when the door burst open and Penny rushed in. He had never been happier to see her. She alternated between scolding him for pushing himself too hard and swearing she would deck anyone who suggested he was crazy. Hearing he had seen a psychiatrist but hadn't been willing to talk, she grew even more upset.  
"I need you," she told him, stressing each word. "And you need me. So you're going to do whatever you have to, to get out of here and then we'll worry about the rest."  
Her loyalty meant more to him than he was willing to admit, so he swallowed his pride and agreed.   
Penny was waiting for him when he was released. She drove him to the condo she had rented and showed him that it had two extra bedrooms: one for him, and one for an office they could share. It didn't take long for him to agree that he couldn't keep living in the apartment he used to share with Leonard, especially as Penny was no longer his next door neighbor. She had also worked out a deal with his boss, Dr. Gablehauser, to have lunch delivered to his office at work until he was ready to confront the cafeteria which was devoid of his friends.  
So he moved in with her. Much of his old routine stayed the same, but she found other things to keep them busy and fill the empty spaces in their lives. One night a week, they both went to therapy, and he kept his promise to talk even though he didn't have any respect for psychology. Penny set up movie nights and game nights that were open to Stuart and some other geeky guys he knew. She took Sheldon to museums and lectures, train stores and comic book stores. When she went shopping, she dragged him along, and she even persuaded him to take up running, which he enjoyed more than he thought possible.  
At some point, he began to realize that he was content. He enjoyed his new life with Penny, and he felt closer to her than his own sister.  
A touch on his arm startled him out of his reverie. He blinked and saw the rafters of the cabin. The hay bale, with its tray of candles, had flames licking out from two sides.  
"Are you okay?" Penny asked, touching his arm again. He looked down at her and felt something swelling in his chest, something that he couldn't yet name. He glanced back at the photos of their friends, and his eyes lingered longest on the picture of Leonard. Reaching for her, he pulled her into a hug and rested his cheek against the soft texture of her hair.   
When he relaxed his hold, she pulled back just far enough so she could see his face. Her eyes were open so wide it looked painful. "What's... what's going on?" she asked in a voice that trembled slightly.  
He took her hand and led her out of the building. Outside, the woods were peaceful, clothed in a hundred different shades of green and brown. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. With his eyes still closed, he said, "You saved my life in more ways than one, and... I just wanted to say thank you." When he opened his eyes, he no longer saw the scene of a tragedy. All around them, new life was blooming, growing, and reaching for the sun.


End file.
